10 Wild Facts About Jumanji

BY Tara Aquino

December 21, 2017

Columbia/Tristar

When it comes to 1990s family movies that offered the perfect mix of adrenaline and anxiety, few films can compete with Jumanji. Directed by Joe Johnston, the blockbuster adventure film tells the story of the Shepherd siblings (Bradley Pierce and Kirsten Dunst) who play a magical board game that unleashes a whole swarm of wild animals and natural disasters that can only disappear once the game is finished. In the process, they free a man, Alan Parrish (played by Robin Williams), who has been trapped in Jumanji for 26 years.

Flash floods, rabid monkeys, blood-thirsty tigers, and a ruthless hunter—Jumanji left no terror to the imagination, which is exactly what makes it such a classic. As a new version of Jumanji is set to thrill a new generation of moviegoers, we're taking a look back at the movie film that started it all.

1. SCARLETT JOHANSSON AUDITIONED FOR THE ROLE OF JUDY SHEPHERD.

In an old, dug-up audition tape, you can watch an 11-year-old Scarlett Johansson put her lines on tape for the role that ultimately went to Kirsten Dunst. Perhaps Dunst won the role because of her deep understanding of the character? In 1995, she did tell the Chicago Tribune that, "Judy's like a normal little girl, but she can't deal with the fact that her mom and dad are dead. She deals with it through her lies."

2. THE CONCEPT FOR JUMANJI WAS BASED ON A 1981 PICTURE BOOK BY CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG.

Chis Van Allsburg, who was admittedly unhappy with the original draft of the film, got to contribute to a later draft. "The premise [of] the book, and which is of value to the film story, is that there's anarchy and chaos and something uncontrollable inside an environment that we associate with control, which is the house," Van Allsburg toldThe Philadelphia Inquirer. "It's this surreal contrast of two things that don't go together: the quiet domesticity of a large and carefully tended house, and the utter chaos that shudders through it." This also gave some depth to a film that Van Allsburg complained originally had "movie cliches and a Los Angeles-centric feeling."

3. VAN ALLSBURG'S FRUSTRATION WITH MONOPOLY IS WHAT INSPIRED HIM TO WRITE JUMANJI.

In a 2004 interview with Scholastic students and teachers, Van Allsburg revealed the thinking behind his picture book. “When I was a little boy and I would play games like Monopoly, they seemed kind of exciting, but when I was done with the game, all I had was fake money,” he said. “So I thought that it would be fun and exciting if there were such a thing as a game board where whenever you landed on a square and it said something was going to happen, then it would really happen.”

4. ALAN PARRISH’S FAMILY LIFE IN THE FILM REMINDED ROBIN WILLIAMS OF HIS OWN FAMILY.

TriStar Pictures

When asked in a roundtable interview whether Parrish’s father was like Williams’s own, the actor admitted a slight comparison. “He was a bit stern and kind of elegant,” Williams said. However, the actor likened the disconnected relationship between Alan and his father to the fractured relationship between his dad and grandfather. “The wonderful thing about [my dad] is he would never force me to do anything ... because something had happened early in his life where he didn’t want that to happen to me. He had to give up a dream,” Williams continued. “His father had been very wealthy and when his father died, they lost all of that and he was forced to work at a strip mine in Pennsylvania ... When I found something I loved, [my dad] saw that ... That’s what makes it nice, when you can connect on that level.”

5. WILLIAMS RELATED TO ALAN AS AN ONLY CHILD.

In a 1995 interview with The Christian Science Monitor, Williams recalled how his feelings of being an only child helped him connect with Alan. “I've read Jumanji to my four-year-old and six-year-old. They are fascinated and a bit frightened by the black-and-white drawings of monsters under the bed,” said Williams. “But the story has ... something much deeper and more disturbing. It's the fear all children have of abandonment and separation from their parents. That's where my character comes in. I play a boy who has been swallowed up in the game. By the time he is able to come out, 26 years later, his parents are dead, and he feels lost and alone. That's something I can understand. As an only child, I had no siblings to play with, and my parents worked hard, and we moved around a lot.''

6. ROBIN WILLIAMS WAS A JOKESTER ON SET.

TriStar Pictures

"Robin Williams was so wonderful to work with," Dunst told the Chicago Tribune back in 1995. "He would crack us up all the time on the set. I learned a lot about improv from him. My favorite impression he did was Nell (the Jodie Foster character) going through a drive-through." She wasn’t the only one to praise him, as co-star Bonnie Hunt noted in a 1995 interview, “When you walk on a set with Robin, it's like you're at a barbecue in his backyard. He really is a joy."

7. THE ACTOR WHO PLAYED PETER SHEPHERD ALSO VOICED CHIP IN BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

TriStar Pictures

If hearing Bradley Pierce as Peter Shepherd in Jumanji felt oddly familiar, that’s because the then-child actor kicked off his career voicing the loveable teacup Chip in 1991’s Beauty and the Beast. Today, he continues to be an active voice actor, his most recognizable recent credit beingThe LEGO Movie video game.

8. THE PARRISH SHOES SIGN IS STILL ON DISPLAY IN KEENE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

In fact, upon news of Williams’ passing last year, the town’s residents gathered by the sign and set up a makeshift memorial for the late actor. “He was amazing, just amazing,” Rene Hammond, the owner of Frank’s Barbershop around the corner from the sign, told The Keene Sentinel. Days after, the town even had a screening of Jumanji. According to Yankee Magazine, Tim Horgan, The Colonial Theatre’s director of audience services, told Sentinel.com, “We thought it might be a good idea for us to do something good for the community in response, not only to commemorate Robin Williams because he was so impressive, but also because a little bit of our city is in the movie.”

Hence all the chaos that ensues in the film. In the same interview with Entertainment Weekly, Williams also mentioned some fake answers he’d give to people who asked him what Jumanji meant. ”I tell them it’s an island in the Caribbean. Book your travel there early,” Williams joked.

10. ALAN PARRISH’S FATHER AND HUNTER VAN PELT ARE PLAYED BY THE SAME ACTOR.

TriStar Pictures

For those who never realized Jonathan Hyde played both Alan’s distant dad and villain Van Pelt, you’re welcome. Surely, Joe Johnston had to be playing with symbolism here, as Alan Parrish had to overcome both oppressive men in the film.

Tina Fey has transformed modern comedy more than just about anyone else. From the main stage of Second City to the writer’s room of SNL to extremely fetch comedy blockbusters, Elizabeth Stamatina Fey has built a national stage with a dry, eye-popping sarcasm and political satire where no one is safe. She has a slew of Emmys, Golden Globes, SAG, PGA, and WGA awards to prove it—plus a recent Tony nomination (her first). But, more importantly, she’s the closest thing we have to a national comic laureate.

1. SHE DID A BOOK REPORT ON COMEDY WHEN SHE WAS 11.

Fey got a very early start in comedy, watching a lot of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart, and Norman Lear shows as a kid. Her father and mother sneaked her in to see Young Frankenstein and would let her stay up late to watch The Honeymooners. So it’s no surprise that she chose comedy as the subject of a middle school project. The only book she could get her hands on was Joe Franklin’s Encyclopedia of Comedians, but at least she made a friend. "I remember me and one other girl in my 8th grade class got to do an independent study because we finished the regular material early, and she chose to do hers on communism, and I chose to do mine on comedy," Fey told The A.V. Club. "We kept bumping into each other at the card catalog."

2. THE SCAR ON HER FACE CAME FROM A BIZARRE ATTACK THAT OCCURRED WHEN SHE WAS A CHILD.

Fey’s facial scar had been recognizable but unexplained for years until a profile in Vanity Fair revealed that the mark on her left cheek came from being slashed by a strange man when she was five years old. “She just thought somebody marked her with a pen,” her husband Jeff Richmondsaid. Fey wrote in Bossypants that it happened in an alleyway behind her Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, home when she was in kindergarten.

3. HER FIRST TV APPEARANCE WAS IN A BANK COMMERCIAL.

Saturday Night Live hired Fey as a writer in 1997. In 1995 she had the slightly more glamorous job of pitching Mutual Savings Bank with a radical floral applique vest and a handful of puns on the word “Hi.” In a bit of life imitating art, just as Liz Lemon’s 1-900-OKFACE commercial was unearthed and mocked on 30 Rock, the internet discovered Fey’s stint awkwardly cheering on high interest rates a few years ago and had a lot to say about her '90s hair.

4. SHE WAS THE FIRST WOMAN TO BE NAMED HEAD WRITER OF SNL.

Four years after that commercial and two after she joined Saturday Night Live’s writing staff, Fey earned a promotion to head writer. Up until that point, the head writers were named Michael, Herb, Bob, Jim, Steve. You get the picture. She acted as head writer for six seasons until moving on to write and executive produce 30 Rock. Since her departure, two more women (Paula Pell and Sara Schneider) have been head writers for the iconic show.

5. SHE’S THE YOUNGEST MARK TWAIN PRIZE WINNER.

Established in 1998, the Kennedy Center’s hilarious honor has mostly been awarded to funny people in the twilight of their careers. Richard Pryor was the first recipient, and comedians who made their marks decades prior like Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg, and George Carlin followed. Fey earned the award in 2010 when she was 40 years old, and the age of her successors (Carol Burnett, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, David Letterman ...) signals that she may hold the title of youngest recipient for some time.

6. SHE WROTE SATIRE FOR HER HIGH SCHOOL NEWSPAPER.

Fey was an outstanding student who was involved in choir, drama, and tennis, and co-edited the school’s newspaper, The Acorn. She also wrote a satirical column addressing “school policy and teachers” under the pun-tastic pseudonym “The Colonel.” Fey also recalled getting in trouble because she tried to make a pun on the phrase “annals of history.” Cheeky.

7. SHE MADE HER RAP DEBUT WITH CHILDISH GAMBINO ON "REAL ESTATE."

Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) first gained notice as a member of Derrick Comedy in college, and Fey hired him at the age of 23 to write for 30 Rock. Before jumping from that show to Community, Glover put out his first mixtape under his stage name. After releasing his debut album, Camp, in 2011, Gambino dropped a sixth mixtape called Royalty that featured Fey rapping on a song called “Real Estate.” “My president is black, and my Prius is blue!"

8. SHE VOICED PRINCESSES IN A BELOVED PINBALL GAME.

Between the bank commercial and Saturday Night Live, Fey has an intriguing credit on her resume: the arcade pinball machine “Medieval Madness.” Most of the game’s Arthurian dialogue was written by Second City members Scott Adsit (Pete Hornberger on 30 Rock) and Kevin Dorff, who pulled in fellow Second City castmate Fey to voice for an “Opera Singer” princess, Cockney-speaking princesses, and a character with a southern drawl. (You can hear some of the outtakes here.)

9. SHE USED MEAN GIRLS TO PUSH BACK AGAINST STEREOTYPES OF WOMEN IN MATH.

Paramount Home Entertainment

There’s a ton of interesting trivia about Mean Girls, Fey’s first foray into feature film screenwriting. She bid on the rights to Rosalind Wiseman’s book that inspired the movie without realizing it didn’t have a plot. She initially wrote a large part for herself but kept whittling it down to focus on the teenagers, and her first draft was “for sure R-rated.” Fey also chose to play a math teacher to fight prejudice. “It was an attempt on my part to counteract the stereotype that girls can’t do math. Even though I did not understand a word I was saying.” Fey used a friend’s calculus teacher boyfriend’s lesson plans in the script.

10. SHE SET UP A SCHOLARSHIP IN HER FATHER’S NAME TO HELP VETERANS.

Fey’s father Donald was a Korean War veteran who also studied journalism at Temple University. When he died in 2015, Fey and her brother Peter founded a memorial scholarship in his name that seeks to aid veterans who want to study journalism at Temple.

"He was really inspiring," Fey said. "A lot of kids grow up with dreams of doing those things and their parents are fearful and want them to get a law degree and have things to fall back on, but he and our mom always encouraged us to pursue whatever truly interested us." Fey also supports Autism Speaks, Mercy Corps, Love Our Children USA, and other charities.

Deadpool 2 is officially in theaters and ruling the box office just like its predecessor did back in 2015. But this installment is about more than just crude jokes and over-the-top action scenes; it also includes the debut of a longtime Marvel character that fans have been clamoring to see on the big screen since 2000’s X-Men hit theaters: Cable.

But the Cable in Deadpool 2 isn’t quite the one fans have gotten used to in the books—for starters, his powers and backstory are reined in considerably. While it’s easy to assume that’s by design, so that audiences can better relate to the character (which is played by Josh Brolin), some fans have speculated that the changes are because, well, this character isn’t really Cable at all; instead, Screen Rant has a theory that this version of the character is actually none other than an older Wolverine from the future.

So how can Wolverine be Cable? Well, it’s actually quite easy, considering that Wolverine was Cable in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe comics, which was a series of books in the 2000s that completely reimagined the regular Marvel Universe. In this reality, a grizzled, aged Wolverine takes on the Cable nickname and travels back in time to prevent a takeover of Earth from the villain Apocalypse.

We were already introduced to Apocalypse in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, and while he was defeated in the end, Screen Rant theorizes that he could return like he does in the Ultimate X-Men comics: by inhabiting the body of Nathaniel Essex, a.k.a. Mister Sinister. Essex was already name-dropped in Apocalypse and Deadpool 2, so it stands to reason that there might be some larger story on the horizon for him.

This would, of course, lead to more X-Men movies down the road, with Cable revealing his true nature and teaming with a crew of mutants that includes the classic X-Men cast as well as their younger selves to battle a newly formed Apocalypse. It’d also allow the character of Wolverine to live on in Brolin, leaving Hugh Jackman to enjoy a retired life without claws.

Obviously this is just one fan theory based on a comic storyline from over a decade ago. It would also have to ignore a whole host of continuity problems—including the events of Logan. But having a twist with Cable actually being Wolverine from the future (and likely from a different reality) is the type of headache-inducing madness the comics are known for.